I sat on the stairs awhile longer, waiting for the pain to go away, and the tears to stop. I watched Emma and Jeremy sleep thinking, not for the first time, about how much they look like their father, especially Jeremy. He was like a mini-Pogue. And Emma; who looked almost exactly like me with her father's hair and eyes. Tears began pouring out of my eyes again as a fresh wave of pain ripped through my chest.
"Kat?" Wyatt asked, walking through the doorway from the dining room.
"What's up, little man?" I said, wiping the tears off of my face quickly, and forcing a smile.
He walked over and sat next to me, looking up at me with his worried face.
"Its okay, kitty." He said, patting my leg. I smiled and hugged him. The door banged open, and I jumped up, hands up, ready to defend the three children around me.
"Hello, Kitty." Cayli said seductively, striking a creepy sexual pose in the doorway. I sighed in relief, so glad that it wasn't a demon. I looked around for Xana, not seeing her.
"Where's Xana when you need her?" I groaned, my hands falling to my sides.
"You called?" she said, also in a seductive way, climbing through the window next to the door. I buried my face in my hands, sighing. Wyatt giggled and ran off, probably to find Piper. At least, that's what I thought until I saw Chris toddle around the corner, and straight through our little group.
"The window? Really? Why!" I asked, looking at Xana.
"It was open." She said, her voice and face serious. I stared at her for a second before I started grinning.
"God, I hate you both sometimes…" I said, moving to hug Cayli. She hugged me back, and I realized that she was wearing my zombie costume shirt, ripped to shreds and covered in blood and fake gore fluids, it was one of my favorite shirts.
"Seriously, Cay? I thought I'd lost that thing when I couldn't find it when I was packing!" I said, staring at her chest.
"Oh no, I just borrowed it. It's been on my body the whole time." She said, running her hands up and down the front of her body.
"That's… nice to know….." I said, glancing around awkwardly. "So, uh, Xana, what's up?" I asked, hoping to get out of that conversation.
"Talkin' to my online boyfriend!" she said, squeeing just a tiny little bit. I grinned, and glanced back at my kids, who were starting to squirm a little. I sighed, stupid twin telepathy, or whatever…. They slept at pretty much the same times, which was a blessing until they started to wake up.
"That's great…" I said distractedly, picking up toys and putting the box in the front room with Wyatt and Chris's. "So… where have you guys been all day?"
"Around," Cay shrugged. I looked at them skeptically as I heard sirens in the distance. I figured that since they'd been in town for a couple of days, they might know where I was talking about.
"Uh-huh. You better not have burned down Nicky's, cause that's where we're going for dinner." I picked up a teddy bear and hugged it to myself, going back to sit on the stairs.
"I don't even know a Nicky," Cay answered, snarkily. I smiled a little and shook my head. Xana's phone pinged, and she looked down at it, smiling to herself, and started typing out a reply.
"Oooh, Caleb!" Cayli said in a child-like voice.
"Shut uuuuup!" Xana whined, smiling and turning red. I smiled, just a tiny bit forced, thinking of the other Caleb, the one who had just left. I knew Xana's Caleb was from Ipswich, but I also knew it was not the same Caleb. I refused to ask his last name, though.
"Are you two talking dirty again?" I teased.
"They're always talking dirty." Cay said, smiling deviously.
"Dirty talk doesn't start 'till nine o'clock." Xana said childishly, with an impish grin on her face. I rolled my eyes as Emma and Jeremy woke up completely, stretching and sitting up. Emma's curls were stuck to her face a little bit, and I smiled.
"Daddy Cay!" Emma yelled, going over to hug my inappropriate friend.
"Daddy Xana!" Jeremy yelled, going over and latching onto the shy girl's legs.
"Heeey!" Xana said, ruffling the boy's dark hair. He scrunched his face into a squished smile.
"Hey, Emi!" Cay said, swinging the little girl up. Emma squealed, and started giggling, hugging Cay's neck. My cousin's ran into the doorway, hearing the screaming, and then stopped when they realized it was just Xana and Cayli.
"Mommy, daddies, we're hungry." Emma and Jere said at the same time. I sighed at the eeriness of it all. I looked back at the rest of the family and raised an eyebrow.
"Anyone else hungry?" I asked.
"I'm hungry…." Xana said childishly, texting away on her phone.
"I'm hungry, Kitty, but not for food." Cay said, rubbing my arm. I laughed and swatted at her hand.
"Cay, the children!" I exclaimed.
"It's okay, Kitty, we'll tell them one day." She said, putting her hand on my shoulder. I chuckled and turned to the Halliwell's.
"So, are you guys hungry?" I asked. They responded with a chorus of agreements.
"Where we goin', mommy?" Emma asked.
"I figured we'd go to Nicky's, so that no one had to cook, and we don't have to do extra dishes or anything…" I said, pulling the hair off of her cheek.
"What's Nicky's?" Cay asked, Xana smiled.
"There's a place that Caleb goes to called Nicky's" Xana said, squirming.
"Oh, please don't say that!" I muttered, a cold ball of dread forming in the pit of my stomach.
"Maybe I'll see him!" she said in a happy, squealy, childlike voice. I shook my head in amusement, and then, it happened. She opened her mouth, and screamed like a fangirl.
Everyone's hands flew to their ears, and their faces scrunched up in pain. She stopped and looked back at her phone, typing something in. We all looked at her with shocked faces.
"Caleb told me to do it right then." She said with an innocent face. I rolled my eyes and looked at Cay, thoughts roiling around in my head.
"Yeah… We should change though, since we've been unpacking and stuff… Hey, Cay, give me my zombie shirt."
"Alright." She said, pulling the shirt over her head. I laughed, and we all went upstairs, changed, and left.